"How peculiar.." Steve looked closely at little trinket sitting on the livingroom coffee-table. The mud coating his skin was all crusty and getting all over the couch, and Lyla was nowhere to be seen.
"Your turn to wash up, stinky." Steve was suddenly attacked by a clean towel to the face. He grabbed it as it was dropping to the floor and looked up to see Lyla with her clean clothes on and hair that was even worse after getting wet. "And don't mess with my amulet thing." She told Steve, noticing his interest in her little light blue gem tightly wrapped in an iron webbing that was made to look like vines growing all around it.
"Where did you get it?" Steve asked.
"I don't know. Now get up so I can clean the couch you messed up already." She was obviously not in a talkative mood. Steve got up and walked towards the bathroom. "Wait, you have spare clothes with you, right?"
"Yeah." Steve answered simply, picking up on Lyla's anti social attitude. Steve was in and out of the shower much quicker than Lyla and also came out wearing the exact same looking outfit he had on before, but just a cleaner set. At the time, Lyla would have preferred he wear something that maybe didn't resemble the man who just kidnapped her sister, but she had sold all her father's outfits long ago and her clothes would be much too small.
When Steve came out he right away sat in a chair across from the couch Lyla was now claiming as her throne just by the way she sat on it.
"So what's the plan Stan?" Steve asked with no joking expression whatsoever. Lyla just looked at him as if he should already know.
"Simple. You go where you were planning on going and do what you were planning on doing, and I help." Lyla laid out as simple as possible. Steve didn't exactly look like he liked that idea.
"Listen, I will be going further north for this, where it is even colder and the villages are few and far between. Coming along is basically a death wish." Steve stated.
"Excuse me but is that a challenge?" Lyla perked up.
"Hhhh, no, it isn't." Steve dropped his head into his hands and shook his head.
"Well, I accept this quest of yours. You'd better know that I am tougher than most people, maybe even tougher than you; and I am already used to walking far distances and whatever hard work might come our way." Lyla huffed.
"You gotta be kidding me.. This isn't some sort of challenge or endurance game! If you lose, you die! Do you not see the severity in that?!" Steve raised his volume, trying to make a point.
"And do you not see why this is so important to me?!. My sister is in the freakin' NETHER. Who knows how long she'll last without my help?! She's only eighteen after all! You can't expect me to just sit around and wait, do you know how nerve wracking that would be?! I am pretty sure if you had a sibling you would do whatever it takes to help them out, now wouldn't you?!"
"....." Steve only lowered his head with a hint of sadness for him. "...Yeah.. I would do anything for him..."
"Well then let's get going already!" Lyla, in excited mode, stood quickly to leave.
"Hold up, battle princess! It's midnight outside. We should stay here tonight and prepare for tomorrow. We'll leave first thing in the morning." Steve devised a plan, and Lyla was glad she was a part of it. She walked over to the bottom of the stairs before turning around to look Steve directly in the eyse.
"Promise, that you won't leave me along the journey, no matter what comes our way?" She asked with sincerity that caught Steve off guard.
"..I promise." Steve promised with sincerity as well. Satisfied, Lyla walked up the stairs and Steve made himself cozy on the little couch, and fell asleep.
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Lyla woke up around her usual hour at 5:30 AM, just before the sun starts rising. She quietly walked down the stairs and almost giggled at the sight of Steve still sleeping on the couch in an uncomfortable position with an arm and a leg dangling off the side. She decided to let him sleep in a little as she looked through the chests for anything and everything she might need. Lyla took into account as well that she might be gathering quite a few things on the way so she kept her inventory strictly things she would need like food, water, extra clothes, soap, and a couple old potions no one ever used anyways. Oh! And she also packed some of her dad's old iron sword, which she kept in the most readily on an old sword hilt at her waste. Oops! Can't forget her mom's bow with it's infinity and unbreaking enchantments. She put that on her back and kept an arrow or two in her inventory as well. Lyla honestly had no idea the bow was so OP until that morning when she took a closer look at it.
After she had everything ready, Lyla walked over to the couch and shook Steve awake. He grumbled nonsense in his sleep and rolled over, but she just shook him harder. Eventually, Steve's eyes pryed themselves open and he saw Lyla fully awake and prepared for the trip.
"Eeehhhhh, it's too early to go.. What time even is it?" Steve moaned.
"It's six AM now. I was going to wake you up earlier but decided to let you sleep in." Lyla explained kindly, understanding he was still only just waking up.
"SIX?! Listen, when I say early, I mean nine or something.." Steve groaned.
"But that's like four hours wasted! I always wake up around this time of day."
"Oh, yeah, forgot you're a farmergirl or something.." He mumbled as he prepared himself to sit up. Lyla left Steve to wake up on his own but when she came back he was back asleep.
"Ughh! Steve! Wake up!!" Lyla shook him again, but he was too deep in sleep that time. "Hmmm." Lyla wondered. Then she smiled and pulled out a steak from her inventory and waved it in front of Steve's face. It took a moment, but all of a sudden Steve sat up with such speed that his face rammed right into the steak in front of it and the steak fell into his lap.
"Why did you slap me with a steak?!" Steve turned, wide awake finally, to scowl up at Lyla.
"Wh?! Me?! You are the one who slammed your face into it!" Lyla scoffed. Both of them rolled their eyes at one another and left the argument at that. Steve ate the steak in his lap while Lyla checked everything again to make sure she hadn't missed anything.
"What about your amulet thingy?" Steve asked with a mouth full of food.
"What about it?" She asked in return.
"You going to take it with you? It seems like something someone would want to take on an 'epic quest." He answered.
"Oh.. Well I never really take it anywhere. It just kind of sits there all the time." Lyla said.
"Well if it doesn't mean anything to you then you could always trade it along the way in case we ever need more food or supplies. By the looks of it, you could probably get quite a few shiny emeralds for it." Steve suggested.
"Well it isn't worthless, I just never got in the habit of taking it with me."
"Maybe you can start now then."
"Why are you so interested in it anyways?"
"I just find it interesting that someone like yourself even owns something as fancy as this. Not trying to be rude, but it is clear that you are not one for shiny things just because, shiny things."
"True. But I guess I just never got rid of it. Don't really remember why though." And with that, Lyla picked up the trinket and looked at it in her hand. Without making any deal of it, she slid the amulet into her inventory to be traded for later or whatever. "You ready to go?"
"Yeah. You?" Steve answered as he made a deal of stretching his shoulders and back.
"Been ready for about an hour now." Lyla smiled a little, a kind of bragging smile. Steve caught it and let an eyebrow raise slightly.
"Alright, let's get going." He said right before pushing the door and walking out. The forest outside was just beginning to see the morning sun.
"Off on an epic quest!" Lyla joked.
"Yeah, the epic quest to not die." :]